“Dance in a Buffalo Skull” is an American Indian story, the most well-known version of which comes from the Yankton Sioux. The story is about a community of mice who symbolize the American Indians telling and listening to the story. The mice become so involved in an evening of feasting and dancing that they forget to stay alert to what is happening in their surroundings. They fail to notice danger until it is upon them, causing them to flee in panic. The story is a reminder, especially to the children who would be listening, that one must always be aware of what is going on outside of one’s immediate attention.
As with many American Indian stories, the story originated as an oral tradition, so few recorded versions of “Dance in a Buffalo Skull” exist. Tales using animals as characters are, however, quite common. Many American Indians believed that animals are also people who interact freely with the human and spiritual worlds. In “Dance in a Buffalo Skull,” the correlation between the world the mice inhabit and the world of the storytellers is apparent.
In 1901, Zitkala-Ša, also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (1876–1938), published Old Indian Legends, a collection of stories the author heard told as she was growing up on the Yankton reservation in South Dakota. At the age of eight, Zitkala-Ša left the reservation to be educated at a Quaker boarding school for Indians, tempted by the promise of “red, red apples.” Though returning home from time to time, she continued her formal education through college. Old Indian Legends, originally illustrated by Angel DeCora, was primarily a collection of tales about Iktomi the trickster. Zitkala-Ša also included a number of additional stories she recalled from her childhood, including “Dance in a Buffalo Skull.” Her intent was to preserve the stories, and just as importantly, to share them with non-Indian children so they would learn American Indian folklore as an integral part of American folklore.
The story, as Zitkala-Ša tells it, is about a community of field mice. The mice love to play at night but must always stay on the alert for danger. One night, the mice gather inside a buffalo skull. The skull is brightly lit by the open fire the mice have built inside as they sing, dance, and drum. Even the wolves keep their distance because of the fire, but the mice become so involved in their festivities that they forget to carefully observe their surroundings. At the same time, a mysterious creature with two fiery eyes starts gliding along toward the buffalo skull. The mice share a feast and resume dancing, unaware of approaching danger. Suddenly, the yellow eyes appear in the buffalo skull’s eye sockets, sending the mice scurrying for the safety of the dark outside of the skull. One frightened mouse yells that it is the spirit of the buffalo, while others cry that it is a wildcat as they flee into the dark. That one of the startled mice believes that the yellow eyes are the spirit of the buffalo serves to remind the listener that danger is just as likely to come from the spirit world as from the natural world.
The story appears as a cautionary tale, a reminder to always be aware of potential danger. This would have been a vital lesson for the Plains dwellers, who needed to be aware of both animal predators and possible acts of aggression from other tribes. In the years Zitkala-Ša was growing up, the warning might also have applied to the encroachment of white Americans. She was born in the year of the Battle of Little Bighorn, when the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho defeated General George Custer and his troops. The 1880s were a decade of increased action by the U.S. government to limit Indian land rights, culminating in the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, where more than 300 Sioux men, women, and children were gunned down. This was clearly a time requiring constant vigilance for the Lakota.
In 2007, the South Dakota State Historical Society Press published a children’s storybook of Dance in a Buffalo Skull. Illustrated by S. D. Nelson, who like Zitkala-Ša is Sioux (Standing Rock tribe), the book has won multiple children’s book awards. The picture book keeps Zitkala-Ša’s original text, while adding Nelson’s colorful depictions of painted mice wearing Indian garb and feathers.
Barbara J. Kilgust
See also Badger and the Bear; Manstin the Rabbit; Shooting of the Red Eagle; Toad and the Boy; Tree-Bound, The; Warlike Seven
Further Reading
Capaldi, Gina. 2011. Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Ša, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist. Minneapolis, MN: Millbrook Press.
Hassrick, Royal. 1964. The Sioux: Life and Customs of a Warrior Society. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Zitkala-Ša. 1979. American Indian Stories. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Zitkala-Ša. 2003. American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings, edited by Cathy N. Davidson and Ada Norris. New York: Penguin Books.
Zitkala-Ša. 2007. Dance in a Buffalo Skull. Pierre: South Dakota State Historical Society Press.